Our subject is a fine representative of a native-born citizen of this county and township. February 26, 1838, being the date of his birth. He came of fine old New England parentage. His father, Luzerne Bartholemew, was a native of Connecticut, and emigrated from there to Illinois in 1837, coming all the way in a covered wagon. He settled on a farm on section 6, building a log house to shelter his family. He bought three eighties, and later erected substantial buildings on his place, among them a comfortable residence, treadmill, windmill and woolen mill. He was a man of infinite resources and equally expert in various callings. Besides being a skillful farmer he was a fine machinist, a successful boot and shoe merchant, and also butchered cattle, shipping the prepared meat in barrels to New Orleans on flat boats. In 1848 he crossed the plains to California with a company of emigrants. He was made the Captain of this band, driven thither by the gold fever. While in California he captured a grizzly bear, weighing about two thousand pounds. After coming home he exhibited the bear throughout the United States, in East and Southern Canada, and in the fall of 1856 made a trip to Europe, exhibiting the bear in all the leading cities.

During all these travels our subject was his father's companion, being thus enabled to gain a fair knowledge of the world. Upon their return home they disposed of the bear in Brandon, Vt., for the sum of $10,000. Subsequently, while on a visit to Connecticut in 1866 the father died. He was twice married. His first wife was the mother of our subject, and, like his father, was a native of Connecticut. Her maiden name was Betsey Yale, and she was a descendant of the famous Yale family of that State. She was a highly educated woman, possessing great literary talent and writing both prose and poetry with facility. She had three children, of whom our subject is the only survivor. John B. was a soldier in the Eighth Missouri Infantry, and after a service of nearly three years bravely yielded up his life in the service of his country at the siege of Vicksburg. Sarah Helen died at the age of eighteen years.

Our subject gained the preliminaries of his education in the district school, and subsequently pursued an excellent course of study in the Galesburg Academy, never attending school but six months after he was sixteen years old. He began life for himself by working for his uncle in a hardware store at $10 per month, his salary being raised to $50 per month in 1859. He subsequently clerked in a dry goods store for Cone & Wilcox for one season. He then returned to his uncle and was engaged in putting up lighting rods, etc., for one season. After that he was variously employed in farming, shelling corn and threshing, and also in raising stock.

Mr. Bartholemew began his farming operations with an eighty-acre tract of half improved land, and has done so well in its cultivation that he has been enabled to buy more and now he has three hundred and sixty-eight acres of land under good tillage and highly improved in every respect, so that it is justly considered the most desirable stock in the township. As before mentioned he is largely engaged in raising stock and has acquired wealth in his dealings. At one time he sold six car loads of cattle which averaged over $80 per head.

By his marriage to Miss Mary Ennis, which was solemnized May 15, 1862, Mr. Bartholemew secured a wife who is devoted to his interests and has greatly aided him in the procurement of his property. She is a daughter of John and Sarah (Loomis) Ennis, natives respectively of New York and Connecticut.

Mr. and Mrs. Bartholemew's congenial married life has been blest to them by the birth of six children: John B., a manufacturer, of Des Moines, Iowa, who married Louella Moore, of Oskaloosa, and they have two children: Orie Y., a graduate of Knox College, and poet of the class of 1888, now book-keeper for the Peoria Planter Works, making his home in Des Moines: Lura H., also a graduate of Knox College, and class historian, is now assistant Principal of the Elmwood High School; Charles A., a young business man of Elmwood, is a manufacturer of peanut and coffee roasters and also has a brass foundry; Carrie Maud and Bessie Alice.

Mr. Bartholemew is a noble-spirited, high-minded, generous-hearted man of exemplary habits whose course both in public and private life is beyond reproach, and he and his wife and their family stand high in the social circles of the county, their hospitality, their kindness and cordiality rendering their charming home in the town of Elmwood very attractive to all who enter within its gates. For the past four years our subject has represented Elmwood Township on the County Board of Supervisors, and has been otherwise connected with the local government as member of the City Council, and on the School Board and as Road Commissioner. As an incumbent of the important office of Supervisor, he has looked carefully after the interests of his township, and his rare capacity for business has been well illustrated by the masterly manner in which he conducted the case of the bondholders vs. the township, in the suit brought by the owners of the bonds issued by the township to build the Hannibal, Peoria & Dixon Railroad. The amount of money involved in the litigation was $170,000, and after a great deal of controversy in the courts our subject was instrumental in bringing the suit to a close by effecting a settlement of the claim for $115,000, and on the issue of new bonds he placed them on the market at a premium. Mr. Bartholemew is a strong Republican and takes a deep interest in politics. He and his wife and their three eldest children are among the prominent members of the Congregational Church, of which he is a Trustee, and Mrs. Bartholemew has been active in the Sunday-school work as a teacher.